Justice Ministry, Jos Disco, constitute taskforce to prosecute electricity offenders

The Federal Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with Jos Electricity Distribution Plc, has constituted a Joint Taskforce christened “Special Investigation and Prosecution Taskforce on Electricity Offences (SIPTEO) to prosecute all electricity offenders.

In his address during the launch, the Managing Director of Jos Electricity Distribution (JED), Engineer Abubakar Bello Mohammed, said the launch was the culmination of relentless efforts by successive managements of Jos Electricity Distribution Plc to respond to massive revenue leakages and investment losses resulting from energy theft and vandalism of electrical assets.

Engr. Mohammed said the launch of SIPTEO was as important for the company as it is for customers and the national economy, considering that the scourge of vandalism and energy theft undermines efforts at delivering stable and reliable electricity supply to teeming customers, which ultimately impacts the national economy.

He said, No doubt, victory in the fight against vandalism and energy theft will enhance our operations and service delivery to our customers. And as you are aware, a reliable power supply is one of the major pillars of every prosperous economy. This fight should, therefore, be taken as a collective fight for the security of our national asset.”

The Managing Director pointed out that JED Plc has, over the years, invested heavily in metering its retail and large power (LP) customers, in line with the Power Sector Recovery Plan of the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) approved by NERC.

Engr. Mohammed disclosed that JED Plc has equally invested a total of five billion, two hundred and forty-eight million, five hundred and ninety-seven thousand, seven hundred and twenty-eight naira, and twenty-four kobo (N5,248, 597, 728.24) in the acquisition and delivery of single and three-phase meters to its teeming customers under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) Phase 0.

Engr. Mohammed added that the huge metering investment under NMMP Phase 0 was a facility and investors’ hard-earned money, adding that the principal sum and the interest of the loan are to be settled from (monthly) payments for energy by customers.

“It may interest you to know that, given JED Plc’s metering penetration, with about 240,000 customers on prepaid metres (representing 35% of the entire customer base of the company), JED Plc’s expected monthly revenues from these metered customers alone should be about N2.5 billion.

Unfortunately, that is not the case, as only N1.4 billion trickles in monthly from these prepaid customers; the rest (representing more than 50% of expected prepaid collections) is lost to energy theft.

“While the company grapples with the existential menace of energy theft, the incidence of vandalism of critical assets of the company continues to spiral.”

According to him, with metering, in 2021 alone, JED Plc sank a whopping N7,298,134,551.00 in critical infrastructure upgrades. which included the purchase and installation of new transformers (DTs), the rehabilitation of existing ones, and the construction of new lines, among other capital projects.

He narrated that the investments were intended to improve the reliability and safety of services to customers, adding that the investment sum was also a facility, repayable from the monthly revenues of the company and investors’ monies.

He said, “It is a pity to state, however, that these assets have come under relentless waves of attacks by vandals, notwithstanding their beneficial impacts on communities.

“This year alone, the company has expended between N400 million and N500 million in fixing and replacing DTs that have been vandalised. This is clearly a double jeopardy for the company: while the company’s revenue is being massively depleted by vandalism and energy theft, the little that trickles in is expended on the repair and replacement of assets wrecked by vandals.

‘What JED Plc is suffering at the hands of these vandals and energy thieves is, no doubt, a serious going-concern threat: The company’s revenues are fast shrinking, and its losses (i.e., aggregate technical, commercial, and collection losses) are on a worrying increase as vandals and energy thieves intensify their activities on a daily basis.”

He declared that the cumulative consequence was that funds that would have been well spent on expanding JED Plc’s network to unserved areas and on improving service delivery to customers were lost to energy theft and spent on fixing and replacing damaged DTs and lines.

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